White church
The term "white church" refers to a broad range of predominantly white Christian congregations and denominations in the United States, which have played complex roles in racial issues throughout history. While many white church leaders and congregations have actively opposed racism and supported abolitionist movements, there have also been significant factions within these communities that have endorsed slavery, segregation, and white supremacist ideologies. Historically, notable opposition to slavery emerged from various religious groups, yet only the Quakers took a firm stance against slave ownership across their denomination.
After the abolition of slavery, the white South established the Jim Crow system, which perpetuated racial segregation and discrimination, often endorsed by some white churches. In contrast, the black church became a significant force in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s, with some white denominations eventually joining the struggle for racial equality. However, tensions remained, exemplified by demands for reparations and critiques of white churches’ historical complicity in oppression.
Today, the "white church" remains a diverse entity, home to both strong advocates for racial justice and individuals or groups that align with white supremacist beliefs. This dichotomy underscores the ongoing complexities of race, faith, and social justice within predominantly white Christian communities.
On this Page
Subject Terms
White church
The “White church,” a composite of many denominations with predominantly White congregations, has a mixed history in terms of race relations in the United States. Although the most vocal White voices raised in opposition to racism came from the church, those who supported slavery, segregation, and White supremacist politics also came from White Christian congregations, including Christian ministers.
American political activist and Marxist historian Herbert Aptheker noted that religion was by far the greatest influence on White antiracism. The earliest White statements against slavery came from the pulpit, with Quaker, Methodist, Baptist, and Unitarian ministers being most frequently represented in the abolitionist movement, seeing it as God’s work to fight for emancipation. Yet, rarely did an entire White denomination take an antislavery stance. Only the Society of Friends, or Quakers—whose homes were a crucial part of the Underground Railroad—successfully barred all slaveholders from their ranks, but even they had problems integrating their own congregations. Most other White Protestant denominations experienced schisms on the issue of slavery. Each had its outspoken abolitionists who saw slavery as an egregious sin, and each had its loyal enslavers unwilling to make concessions. Both sides cited the Bible for support—abolitionists relied on the Golden Rule and Christ’s teachings, while proslavery clergy cited the book of Leviticus, New Testament letters from the Apostle Paul, and Noah’s curse on Ham's youngest Son Canaan, according to Duke Divinity School professor H. Shelton Smith.
Once the abolition of slavery became a reality, the White South’s response was a system of apartheid known as Jim Crow, and religious institutions were no exception. Religious texts such as The Negro a Beast, or, In the Image of God? (1990) and God the Original Segregationist (1954) fueled the racist fire in mainstream White churches, and the Ku Klux Klan proclaimed itself a Christian group. It was strength mobilized in the Black churches that established the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s, and White denominations such as Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Episcopalians subsequently desegregated their congregations and supported the struggle, according to United Church of Christ minister and author Joseph Hough, Jr. Still, it was not until 1963 that predominantly White churches, represented by the National Council of Churches (NCC), gave full support (including financial support) to direct-action efforts. The NCC included Protestant as well as Catholic and Jewish representatives and helped make the 1960s the most active decade in terms of White church involvement with antiracist efforts. However, this marriage had dwindled by 1969 when American civil rights leader James Forman read his Black Manifesto (1969) to the NCC, demanding $500 million from the White congregations for reparations for African Americans. He cited White churches and Jewish synagogues as some of the primary agents of Black oppression, according to history professor James Findlay, Jr.
Although, in the 1990s, some of the most vigorous institutional antiracism efforts came from primarily White churches such as the Unitarians, groups such as the Christian Identity movement backed White supremacist politicians, including Tom Metzger and David Duke. Even in the twenty-first century, the “White church” continues to encompass both the most committed antiracists and the staunchest white supremacists. Additionally, systemic racism and the repercussions of decades-long oppression of the Black community remain evident in the White church. For example, the Catholic church never had a Black cardinal until Wilton Gregory became the Archbishop of Washington in 2020.
Bibliography
Aptheker, Herbert. Anti-Racism in the United States: The First Two Hundred Years. Praeger, 1992.
"This Archbishop Has Become the First African American Cardinal in Catholic History." CNN, 28 Nov. 2020, edition.cnn.com/2020/11/27/world/archbishop-wilton-gregory-cardinal/index.html. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.
"Christian Identity." Southern Poverty Law Center, www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/ideology/christian-identity. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.
Findlay, James, Jr. Church People in the Struggle: The National Council of Churches and the Black Freedom Movement, 1950-1970. Oxford UP, 1997.
Hough, Joseph, Jr. Black Power and White Protestants: A Christian Response to the New Negro. Oxford UP, 1968.
Newton, Michael. White Robes and Burning Crosses: A History of the Ku Klux Klan from 1866. McFarland, 2014.
Smith, H. Shelton. In His Image, but . . . Racism in Southern Religion, 1780-1910. Duke UP, 1974.
Wallace, Carey. "White Supremacy Runs Deep in White American Christianity." Time Magazine, 14 Jan. 2021, time.com/5929478/christianity-white-supremacy. Accessed 9 Jan. 2025.